Reith forces Coalition to rethink IR

Former Howard government industrial relations minister
Peter Reith
has succeeded in forcing
Tony Abbott
to open up the debate in Coalition ranks about industrial relations reform.

The shift was seized on by the Labor Party and the union movement to warn of a return by the opposition to radical labour market policies.

Mr Abbott said yesterday he was concerned about “very worrying signs" of increased industrial militancy since the Gillard government’s changes to the Coalition’s Work Choices reforms.

He said he was “carefully looking" at them before producing “a strong and effective workplace relations policy before the next election".

The Opposition Leader said he and Mr Reith were “absolutely shoulder to shoulder" on workplace relations in the Howard government and the Coalition would develop a new policy which “will be a problem-solving policy; it won’t be an ideological policy".

Mr Reith welcomed Mr Abbott’s comments and was glad to hear him say he would encourage people to say what they thought about workplace relations.

“I should lose elections more often," Mr Reith said in a sarcastic reference to his defeat, on Mr Abbott’s casting vote, in the fight for the Liberal Party presidency last weekend.

Opening up debate on industrial relations reform was one of the issues on which Mr Reith campaigned.

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It was fear he would become a lightning rod for a Labor campaign that the Coalition wanted to revive the unpopular Work Choices policies that was the key factor in his defeat.

Mr Abbott’s concession to the Reith campaign for a renewed industrial relations policy debate was welcomed by business groups and by the HR Nicholls Society, the advocate of labour market liberalisation which was so influential in support of John Howard’s reform agenda.

The society said in a statement that it would take up Mr Abbott’s invitation to revive the IR debate and would encourage the business community to take up their concerns about the Gillard government’s rolling back of changes under Work Choices.

But Mr Abbott’s conciliatory remarks to Mr Reith immediately triggered claims by the trade union movement and the government that the revival of Work Choices was inevitable if the Coalition won the next election.

Both said it appeared certain Mr Abbott would succumb to pressure to return to hard-line reforms similar to those in Work Choices.

The focus on Mr Reith’s angry response to his defeat for the Liberal presidency on Mr Abbott’s vote came on the day a new opinion poll showed he had overtaken
Julia Gillard
as preferred prime minister.

While supporters of the need for the Coalition to resume its advocacy of industrial relations reform were pleased that Mr Reith had “shaken us out of our complacency", as one MP put it, others said the whole affair raised new questions about Mr Abbott’s political judgment.

They said their leader had allowed Mr Reith to set the agenda by provoking him to go public.

Senior party figures are seeking a clear explanation of Mr Reith’s claim that he had been encouraged by Mr Abbott to run for the presidency – and had given undertakings to take a low profile in the job.

Mr Abbott refused yesterday to respond to questions on why he had cast his vote for the incumbent, former Victoria state treasurer
Alan Stockdale
, after encouraging Mr Reith to stand. Mr Reith said he had no idea why Mr Abbott changed his mind.

Concerns about Mr Abbott’s judgment were revived in Liberal ranks last week by a stumble over the idea of a national plebiscite on a carbon tax.

Liberal strategists insisted that the presidency was “a Canberra insiders story" which would have no impact in the electorate.

But it has left sour feelings among top figures in the party which could feed internal disunity – especially if, as some warn, it gives the Labor Party an opening to resurrect its previously successful fear campaign against Coalition industrial relations policy.